Negima!? – 09

Summary:
Negi has a dream about chasing after his father, but the person who appears before him is the Black Rose Baron instead. He wakes up squeezing something soft on Asuna’s bed, which turns out to be just Motsu. At the Chupacabra Research Society meeting later, Konoka suggests holding a magic training camp for Negi’s partners. They decide to go somewhere they heard about from Kaede and set up camp. While the girls are off fishing, Takamichi shows up and mentions to Negi that the headmaster is coming back from England tonight. Konoka and the others are meanwhile able to make a bountiful catch that everyone feasts on afterwards. Negi, however, soon senses something and goes out to the woods to destroy a blob of darkness. Suddenly, a voice announces himself as the goodwill ambassador of love and courage from the land of the mist – the Black Rose Baron. Negi has questions for this person, but the Black Rose Baron poses a riddle instead: what is a large fire on top and a flood below? As Negi and partners are trying to figure out the answer, the Black Rose Baron disappears, vowing to meet them again.
After this incident, Negi takes his partners and demonstrates some magic with a beginner’s wand. The girls attempt to do the same, though Nodoka asks for another demonstration. However, this second time causes Negi to fall over. When he wakes up again, he thinks he sees Nekane, but it turns out to be Kaede watching over him. When Kamo asks why she’s here, Kaede reveals that this area is where she does her ninja training. She’s been watching Negi and knows everything about magic, from the fact that he’d be turned into an animal if he got exposed to his provisional contracts. She even knows about how he longs for his father, the Thousand Master. When Negi admits that he does want to see his father, Kaede tells him that he definitely will if he does his best. And then, saying that it would be good for Negi to have a lot of followers, she kisses him and Kamo enacts the Pactio. While those two are forming their provisional contract, the headmaster meanwhile is meeting with Takamichi and explaining how the Star Crystal is in Japan, but they don’t know anything more specific than that.
The next morning, Konoka wakes up Negi to show him that Asuna is attempting to cook breakfast. All of Negi’s partners also come to visit with stuff to make him feel better. However, Asuna then blows up the dorm because of her cooking.

Once again, the producers are having just too much fun making this. There were tons of jokes and references this week, and I’m sure I probably didn’t get even half of them. They spent maybe only half the episode on the main storyline – not that I’m complaining because it was pretty funny. This scene at the end looks like they actually built a model of the dorm and blew it up. Again, too much fun…
So now we’re up to seven girls since Kaede joined. Her inclusion wasn’t too unexpected since she’s part of Negi’s inner group in the manga. On the other hand, Ayaka, the girl for next week, is not. The Narutaki sisters still have the honors of being the first girls who are contracted with Negi in this anime but not in the manga, yet I’m more interested in seeing if shoutacon Ayaka is going to be like that too. It also probably doesn’t hurt that every other shot they show of Ayaka is like this.

What’s up with you, Don? Why do you even come here? lol And who are you talking to?

Aw, I want to watch these episodes. Starting to lean over to Mahora subs just to watch them faster. I think I’ve only watched four or five episodes so far…

Anyway, the episodes seem to just get more random, judging by the pictures. Kinda makes you wonder how it’ll end. Well, it’ll probably get serious near the end. Maybe Nagi will be mentioned again. Unless they started this series the way they did just to have that short Eva fight.

You know what we should do. We should ask a genuine hacker to go figure out Don’s IP address (assuming he’s not using a service such as Anonymizer), where he lives and have someone living close by to politely ask him to refrain from issuing death threats.

I have to say, I’m just loving Shaft’s art direction for this series.
When I heard the Pani Poni Dash team was going to be handling Negima, I had reservations about what they would do; but I have to admit, the art is truly inspired (And the storyline is funner than the manga too).

On a different note, maybe you should report this Don kid’s threats to the proper authorities. He’s probably just trolling and upset that there are changes to his favorite comic, but he may also be in serious need of some psychiatric help. Hopefully he get’s it before he hurt himself or some of his little friends, because nobody in their right state of mind, gets that upset over somebody blogging about a cartoon.

Isn’t that pose similar to the first OP of Pani Poni Dash… Now what’s that glasses girl’s name…

And to Don, you would actually do something illegal as to stalk someone and attack an innocent being??? Not sure you know this, but the First Amendment is still in act… I know that you’re pissed at Negima!?, but it gives you no reason to threaten somebody else’s life… That is terrorism, thus breaking the law, thus you can go to jail, and then we got Bubba…

Anywho, still waiting for the Kyoto Arc… Woot, GO TSUKUYOMI!!! And since this anime is made by SHAFT, Tsukuyomi better be wearing catears… Neko Mimi Mode!!!

Or he just hate Negima so much, he wants to kill every character… First goes Nodoka, then Asuna, Konoka, and so forth… Then he’ll attack Love Hina, AI Love You, Mao Chan, anything that represents Ken Akamatsu…

Looks like a good episode and its nice to see that even thought we’re on episode 9 the animation quality is still as good as ever. By the way bak3donh1gh you asked if there are other fansubs out there. I suggest Mahora because they are already on 7 and their subs are right on for each character. Looks like this series still rocks.

“Does anybody know who the next episode is about? ”
yes pretty much, FAN SERVICE, but there´s also……FAN SERVICE….and ALSO SOME FUN SERVICE TOO…. :D

THIS SERIE ROCKS!!ONE OF THE BEST OF THE SEASON!! I AM PRAYING HERE FOR A 26 OR 52 OR MORE AND MORE SEASONS LIKE THIS THEY COULD RESET ALL THE TIME TO START NEW ONE THAT I WOULD NOT CARE!!FOR EVER AND EVER UNTIL MY LEAST BREATH!!:D :D

Those who can understand Japanese (or just love the visuals) get the raws from who-knows-where. I download my episodes from fansubbers’ torrents. Currently, Mahora-Fansubs and Shinsen Subs are active subbers. Mahora-Fansubs just released episode 7 while Shinsen is still on four (they seriously take on too many projects at once, but they’re still good). Megami-Anime may or may not still be subbing it. They’ve only subbed and released the first episode.

Don/Hudson/Shinobu’s_Lover go crawl back under whatever rock you came from. You’re opinions are annoying, disrespectful and very childish. You succeed in annoying everyone that has the displeasure of knowing you exist. I pity you.

I think there will probaly be 31 or 32 episodes in this series now.
Lets hope that they can finnish this series good too.

@ Don
Boy you sure are mental. I guess you are prahaps on the wrong forum or something.

@ Hudson
I think you are as bad as he is cause like I said before you remind me of a comic relief character or something. I mean whatever you are trying to do its not working. There are a lot of people here who like this show so please don’t rant like a baby and repeatedly say how retarted this show is ( because its not!)

@Hudson
If only your opinions were fact, Really. Opinions are fine, bad opinions are opinions too, but asserting opinions as fact is not good. Insulting people isn’t getting you supporters anytime soon. No one’s probably going to think ,”Ah, Hudson doesn’t like the art. This IS a bad anime”.

@Don
I hope you’re not Hudson. He still has some dignity left. You, on the other hand, I can say otherwise.

Looks like our friend Don/Hudson (no matter how he tries to hide it, everyone except himself knows they’re the same person) is back for his weekly rant again, he’s getting rather predictable, isn’t he? I was worried for a while when I didn’t see him post for about 2 hours after Omni’s post and speak of the devil, his rants appeared on cue. I’ll be getting my popcorn ready as I look forward to seeing you look like an idiot again next week, Don/Hudson, you’ve unwittingly provided some humour in an otherwise serious discussion as Omni’s unofficial clown.

Seem to me that this guy, y’know, the Hudson/Don guy, is continuing on his “anti-negima?!” crusade. And this time, it’s about his protest regarding “Negima?!” to be shown on Animazement 2007. The reason? Same old, same old: it’s an insult to Akamatsu.

Really, Hudson/Don/whoever, your “anti-Negima” crusade is stupid and rather sad. I pity you.

Anyway, on to a proper review now that I’ve watched it…

THE GOOD: Well, I admit at first that I was expecting this show to become as bad as Xebec’s version of Negima!, but I’m glad to say it doesn’t disappoint. The animation still remained very excellent and high-quality, and I enjoyed the Kaede pactio as well as the Black Rose Baron’s parts, believe it or not. I’ve enjoyed it.

THE BAD: Probably the only thing that detracted from it was the randomness of the episode with the other members of Negi’s class who weren’t part of the inner circle. It is quite hilarious, I’ll admit, but I think they were trying too hard to be funny and serious at the same time. Other than that, I enjoyed the episode.

THE OMGWTF?!:

-The “afro” on the Anatomy model at the beginning…methinks it foreshadows the ending. (Where the dorms blow up and everyone gets afros…lol)

-LOL at Konoka floating down the river in a washtub (Ai Nonoka’s voice on a character on crack = PURE WIN.)

-Er…Asuna as Tsurikichi Sanpei or whatever it is? I think my facial appearance mirrored Setsuna’s and Konoka’s what-do-you-call-those-faces. (Seen in the frames right afterwards.)

-The cheerleaders kinda remind on those three dudes on that “Elite Beat” game, I think it was called. Something tells me they thought Yuna was in love with Mana, though…or maybe I misinterpreted. :/

-Something also tells me that Kaede had something to do with that moving reed in the water seen during the episode…

-http://randomc.net/image/Negima/Negima%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2011.jpg

WTF at the army of Setsunas in the boat.

-I’m still amazed at the fact that no one that doesn’t know about magic is questioning the existence of the talking plushies.

-Does Ayaka look hot or what? :D

-Er, no comment on Makie and the frog.

-I was actually half-expectin the Tuxedo Mask wannabe to pull a Wilhelm and kidnap Negi’s students while in the hot springs, but I guess not. :/

-The explosion in the dorm looked quite real…perhaps it is as Omni said and they detonated a small-scale model of the dorms?

-And we how have a chibi Setsuna in the band now! So serious on playing the triangle, she falls asleep halfway through! XDDDD

CONCLUSION: This series is getting to be quite interesting as things move forward like this. Kaede’s addition to the inner circle comes as no surprise, and neither does the Pactio, considering she’s one of the most likely to make one with Negi in order to help protect the kid. Next episode focuses on Ayaka, like Omni said, so I’m looking forward to that. Though if she DOES end up forming a Pactio with Negi, she’s probably going to still be kissing him LONG after the Pactio is done, that shoutacon. So, with that, I have a word of advice to Negi: RUN FOR YOUR DEAR LIFE.

Oh yeah, since “Negima!?” is an alternate retelling of the manga, expect it to be different. There’s still a basis from the original Akamatsu storyline, which is a good thing, so the viewers can still experience the same feeling of the events from the manga, but in a more beautiful animation and character design supremacy that SHAFT can offer.

Make it Don x Hudson x Me. While I’m not an Akamatsu die-hard fan, new negima looks horrible. All I see it succeeding is parodying other shows. And even that is lacking. Somehow, it feels like they’re using the word “Parody” to masks some really horrible art. Parodies are fine, as long as there’s something else that is only unique to the anime. But from what I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be anything unique about new Negima. Perhaps its only distinctive feature is how much parodies it includes, and even that, has already been done by paniponi.

Also, for the rest of you guys out there, I think it’s about time you stop bashing Hudson. Just because he posted a negative opinion on the show doesn’t warrant everyone to bash him. Personally, I admire him for voicing his disastifaction for the show, and quite disgusted with everyone else who had jumped him. Ganging up on him is no different from a mob on the street beating someone who’s down, regardless of what he had done. “Woo hoo!!! Someone is taking a beating! I want in!”?? Disgusting. If anyone has the right the bash him, it is Omni, and Omni’s alone.

This time round, he HAS a valid point (though I’m not going to say all his points are). Also, aside from his “this show SUCKS” and IQ remark, he’d been way more mature than before (in fact, a lot more mature than some of the other pro-Negima commenters). I too, think that the art style, scripts and pacing of new Negima does not do its characters justice. If this is the result of a “Negima Rescue Operation”, I’d rather have a 2nd season of the original Negima, rather than a remake by Shaft.

P.s. I’ve just read the scanlated, as well as a few raw chapters of Negima Neo, and it’s actually quite good (Personally, I think it looks better than Ken’s original manga). So currently in my book, Negima’s Original Manga (by Ken), Negima’s TV Anime(Xebec), and (ESPECIALLY) Negima Neo are amazing. As for, Negima?!, my answer to the “?!” is “below average”.

@jayars
Actually, I like their idea of parodying, and I like the overall output to be like PPD. Can you blame me for that? :D

You see, I kinda don’t like the art at first, but when i look at it more closely, it has a unique artform which is better than PPD, or in a major perspective, different than PPD.

In my opinion, the reason they put parodies is that so that the original concept of “more on action and darker feeling” wouldn’t overlap the entire show. Take Gatekeepers 21 for example. The story of the entire series is so dark that many complaint about it, since they’re getting used to the lighter side story of the first gatekeepers. In “Negima?!”, SHAFT production team tried to balance the mood of the story.

And… wow, do you really know why everyone’s irritated about that guy? Well, lemme elaborate you about things:

1) That guy just spouted his protest against this Negima?! in the very 1st ep blog, and demanding Omni to not blogging about it ever, in a HARSH WAY that most (if not all) are shocked and furious at what he did.

2) Some of us are being nice to him while telling him to stop spamming. And his response? More bashin towards Omni and another bashin towards other people making a comment here.

3) Since Omni didn’t mind about his useless attemp to overthrow the Negima?! blog, he continuously kept on spamming that everybody here are already annoyed. You don’t want to get annoyed by someone, right?

4) Who the hell he is to dictate someone to stop blogging a show that he likes? If you’re blogging a show YOU LIKE and someone wants you to stop blogging it, would you do it? If I’m eating my favorite spaghetti and you forced me to add mayonnaise and mustard which ruins the entire taste, would I still eat it? Are you kidding me?

5) I’m pretty new here, but I do read some of Onmi’s anime blogs. Blogging about a certain anime isn’t an easy task. He has to be unbiased about things he saw on each episode. I don’t know much about Omni, but I respect him for his work, coz it’s a thing that he likes to do, despite of having a hard time doing it. I’m sure everyone else here would agree about it. If that guy can’t respect his work, then that guy might as well leave here. Simple as that.

Oh yeah, I do agree that any person has a right to voice out about his/her dissatisfaction about something (it’s pretty common since we’re on democracy era), but it doesn’t mean he/she shows up, bashing a person who loves his work & forcing him to stop, annoying the entire community thru spamming, and trying to act cool while voicing out his protest against an anime that he/she didn’t like.

I’ve been coming to this blog for a while now and this guy Hudson/Don is as annoying as an itch that just won’t go way. What i don’t understand is how anyone could hate the art style of this series. At first i hated what they did to Ayaka’s and Nodoka’s faces in the spring ova but it improved in the new anime and all the girls look a lot cuter. As for Jayars who i hope is not Hudson/Don you do understand that he’s simply bashing the show because he has a very unhealthy obsession towards Nodoka. I mean if he hated the show because of storyline and the new pactios that keep popping up i’d understand but this guy is just a narrow-minded, biased, annoying, pathetic, offensive, pitiful, insulting, offending, obnoxious, shameless, stubborn, nodoka obsessed human version of Gollum. And from what i read it’s not the shaft version of negima that Akamatsu was dissapointed by, it was the Xebec version of negima. And another thing i can’t understand is why on earth would anyone prefer the Xebec version of negima over Shaft’s. The story, humour, script(i’ve seen some of their other animes and they all sorely lacked in this department but wasn’t nearly as bad as naruto fillers) and this and animation for Xebec’s version is shoddy to say the least but Shaft’s version is above Xebec’s in all aspects. And Jayars i kinda agree about Negima Neo but only because Asuna looks a lot cuter in there.

@Keikun,
Actually, I’ve been visiting Omni’s blog for quite some time now, and I’ve even followed his blogs on Negima?!. And yes, I do know what Hudson had said in the past. Which is why I said, his recent post had turned out to be so much more mature compared to his older ones (as well as some of the commenters here). Ooh, and regarding PPD, I too, LOVE ppd. It’s brilliant, vibrant and amazing. Everything falls nicely into place in PPD.

And I believe Omni had said this before: Do not feed the trolls. If Hudson/Don really are trolls in people’s eyes, I’m kinda surprised no one is taking up on that advice. Also, to defend Hudson, this time round, he’s no longer attacking anyone in particular. He’s just announcing his dissatisfaction for the new Negima, that’s all. And almost immediately, he gets thrown in the same boat as Don, who is far more abusive.

Yes, I know how hard it is to actually keep up with blogs. Been there, tried that, failed. And I know the horrible aftertaste you get when someone bashes my own blog. Personally, if it were to happen on my own blog, I’d ban the entire host, or an entire range of ips. But that’s not my call on this blog, nor is it anyone else’s except for Omni.

@Kagekyuubi:
Lol, I can see now why Hudson would sometimes be thought to be Don, and vice versa. Apparently, there are other trolls around trying to stir things up by faking identities. Maybe Omni should expose part of ppl’s ip in the comments. That way, we’d know who’s going about causing trouble with fake identities.

Anyway, I personally prefer Xebec’s version because of the pacing and story telling (I’m not saying the story is great. Just the way the story is presented). Also, the character designs, while not as “pretty” as Negima?!, are alot easier on the eyes. Again, whether this is a “good” reason or not… well, everyone should know by now that it’s a matter of personal opinion. For me, I don’t like the art style, or when they break the 4th wall, or even the comic-book-frames thingy. Others might hate the show just because of Nodoka and her almost-always-visible eyes. Or you might like the thick character outlines. It’s all up to personal tastes, and critising others (like what Hudson did in the past) is merely irritating, childish acts. Once again, I do NOT condone what Hudson did in the PAST, such as bashing Omni and other commenters. But like i said, in his latest comment (on Negima anyway), he’s way more in control of his choice of words, while other commenters merely jump at the sight of his nick.

Also, here’s a story: Back in secondary school, we had to participate in class dramas (or plays). So, I came up with the story and rough script, and it was later fleshed-out by some other literature student. The play was not that successful, and so, whenever friends asked me about it, I would disown it. Came 2nd year, and this time, some other lit classmate decided to take my story and give it a bit of a twist. Since most ppl at school (not attending the play = absent) have watched the first play, it was free advertisement. Now throw in the word “with a twist” and “remake”, and the play made it straight to the finals by popularity votes. Of course, I wasn’t even part of the staff this time, nor did I even attend or watch the play (had to beg my doctor to give me a fake medical cert) but what the heck. With all the “that was great” and “you go man!” I was getting, it was so much easier saying “Yeah, now THAT is how I had envisioned the play to be”. I mean, in the end, both plays were based on the same story I wrote. I merely disapproved the first one because it was not that successful, and approved the second one because of all the credit I would get. Btw, the title was “We’d Love You For Dinner”, inspired by some b-horror movie. :P Which would explain why I love Higurashi so much.

Adding Kaede doesn’t really add much to the anime right now. Kaede would be a great addition to the group if it was more exclusive.
I haven’t seen the episode yet, but it does sound kinda boring once I read “infodump”.
The rose baron, pretty peculiar, but if this is an infodump episode, they should have added things about him instead of giving a riddle.